100 Favorite Dishes, No. 20: The Black Bean Dip At Gloria's

To prepare for this fall's Best of Dallas® 2012 issue, we're counting down (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes. If there's a dish you think we need to try, leave it in the comments, or email me.

I've never had much control with chips and salsa at Tex-Mex and Salvadorian restaurants. It takes two, or maybe three chips before I've dripped a little salsa on my table or a menu. When the first basket of chips disappears I do my best to wave it off, but I'm often not the only person at the table, and many times the servers are just too persistent anyway.

So when I encountered Gloria's black bean dip at a meal I had nearly a year ago at their Oak Cliff location in a renovated firehouse, I knew I was in big trouble. Chips and salsa on its own is a formidable enemy. Add an earthy, smooth puree with chunks of savory black beans and I'm completely defenseless. I barely had room for my meal when it arrived, and hours later I became convinced that the tortilla chips were somehow expanding in my gut and eventually my sides would split. I've never been so full. I wanted to slide down the fireman's pole and make a quick exit but I thought I might get arrested.

And presented with the same situation again in the future, I know what exactly what would happen: I'd do it all over again. I've got a date with that fireman's pole, too.

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